


quiet reassurance

by winterpolis



Category: Archie Comics
Genre: F/M, Oneshot collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 02:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14034291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterpolis/pseuds/winterpolis
Summary: | one-shots|He'd always been there, in her periphery, sometimes subtle, sometimes intentional, sometimes obnoxious. But always there.





	quiet reassurance

**Author's Note:**

> Rushed and unbeta-ed.

 

> _but i stay when it's hard or it's wrong or we're making mistakes_  
>  _i want your midnights_

 

The quiet of the party is disrupted with the sudden declaration of “ _Sixty to the new year!_ ” by someone at the grill. All of a sudden, the atmosphere is charged and cheers erupt from all corners of the fraternity house’s patio.

The freshman she’d been talking to stops in his tirade about his father’s yacht long enough to momentarily turn to the group of girls to their left, raise his bottle of beer, and cheer loudly. The girls raise their brows before bursting into a fit of giggles. Betty takes it as an opportunity to slip away from the drab conversation she’d found herself engaged in after she’d showed up to the party dateless. Not that she’d _intended_ to show up dateless.

Betty rolls her eyes at the thought. She was supposed to be Reggie’s _date_ to his fraternity’s New Year’s Eve party since she’d opted out of spending the holidays with her family this year. She didn’t want to have to come home to Archie’s moping and pathetic attempts to win her back after she’d _finally_ walked away from him for good the Christmas a year before, and seeing as to how she and Reggie had basically been connected at the hip since they found themselves in the same university after leaving Riverdale, she’d readily agreed to welcome the new year with her one-time bully and now best buddy. Better Reggie than anyone else, right?

But that had been before they’d gotten into a fight. She honestly couldn’t remember what it was even about anymore; all she knew was that it was stupid and this party was stupid and she should really just hightail it out of here. But one of Reggie’s frat brothers’ girlfriend finds her before she manages to slip back inside to grab her coat and strikes a conversation with her just as the same guy from earlier shouts, “ _Fifty to the new year!_ ” as if someone had delegated him the task of countdown by the tens.

She’d honestly been tuning out of the conversation until—what’s her name? Laura?—mentions Reggie. “And you know that boyfriend of yours. Always so adamant about being the best. Well, my Johnny told him—”

“Wait,” Betty interrupted, her hand coming up to Laura’s face. The other girl’s brown eyes widen comically, her mouth agape. “What did you say?”

Laura pulls Betty’s hand down before addressing her question. “I said, my Johnny—”

Betty rolled her eyes. “No. Before that.”

The redhead before her frowns. “I said Reggie’s always been adamant about being the best.” At the blonde’s own frown of confusion, Laura sighs exasperatedly. “Hello? Earth to Betty? Reggie? Reggie Mantle your boyfriend? Yeah, I was talking about him.”

It was Betty’s turn to have her eyes widen comically. “What! You think he’s my—what?!”

Laura sighed again before shaking her head. “Honestly, Betty. You’re supposed to be the smart one he—”

“What makes you think that Reggie’s my _boyfriend_?” her tone taking a slightly incredulous lift, Betty takes a swig from her cup of punch.

“Uh, I don’t know what’s in your drink that’s causing you to act like a total doozy, sweetheart, but _everyone_ knows you two are the real deal.” At Betty’s fervent shake of the head, Laura just nods her own. “Anyone can tell just by one look. You guys are always holding hands and looking after the other, and c’mon, Cooper. He’s always trailing after you! It’s become a joke among us upperclassmen that if we ever need you, we just had to look for Reggie and you’d be sure to be a few steps away.” Laura finishes with a chuckle, as if she had just stated the most obvious thing in the world.

For Betty, she might as well have just upended it. “That’s not…”

“Betty, what’s with the denial, seriously?” Laura rolled her eyes. “It’s as if you really aren’t joking about not being together and you had no idea about anything I’ve just told you.” The taller girl laughs, but stops immediately upon Betty’s pale face. “You were just…joking…right?” At Betty’s dumbfounded shake of the head,  her eyes grow wide and she gasps.  “But it’s been so obvious! I mean, just one look at Reggie and you know the man is _whipped_!”

_TEN!_

“He’s a fool in love with you, Betty!”

_NINE!_

Her stomach churning, the blonde immediately scans the patio for the boy in question.

_EIGHT!_

Reggie? In love? With _her_?

_SEVEN!_

Yeah, right! Hell would freeze over before  _that_ happened!

_SIX!_

She finally found him by the pool, a hand in his pocket and a beer bottle in the other. He was conversing with one of the younger frat boys and was nodding politely.

_FIVE!_

There was no way this boy, her best friend and former archenemy, was in love with her.

_FOUR!_

But then he’d glanced up, as if drawn to her stare, and his gaze met hers.

_THREE!_

Betty felt the world stop. As if their fight was still in the back of his mind, irritation and confusion flashed in his brown eyes. And then—

_TWO!_

—they softened. The corners of his lips lifted into a genuine smile. And his eyes sparkled in the way they always did when he looked at her. The way they had _always_ did since as far back as she could remember. Only now…now they were the sparkle of something she recognizes, something she’d seen in her own eyes before. Back when Archie had been world. Before Reggie. Before uni. Before Reggie had become a permanent fixture in her life. Before tonight.

_ONE!_

Reggie Mantle was in love with her.


End file.
